Bushes Planning a Move to Dallas

ABC News Ann Compton Reports: President and Laura Bush are moving to Dallas once they leave the White House, the First Lady said on Wednesday.

Laura Bush confirmed that she and the President are buying a house in Dallas, about two hours from his beloved Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.

She broke the news while unveiling the White House’s patriotic Christmas décor this morning, explaining that her family will be "very careful" with spending this holiday to save up for their real estate purchase.

“We will be moving to Dallas in January and there might be a new house coming along. So I think that's where we'll spend our Christmas money," she added.

Though it sounds as though they’ve picked out a new house, the First Lady’s spokeswoman Sally McDonough said Mrs. Bush and her husband do "not have occupancy yet" of a home. A real estate agent working with Mrs. Bush told the Dallas Morning News that they have looked at properties. Rumors of a purchase had swirled through Dallas social circles for a year, but until now, Mrs. Bush firmly denied that her husband had purchased any Dallas land for post-presidency residence.

The couple is said to be looking in the upscale Highland Park area around Southern Methodist University, where Mrs. Bush attended college, and where the president intends to build his library and a policy institute.

The theme of the White House Christmas this year: patriotism.

“That's the theme. It's a red, white and blue holiday,” the First Lady said. “And it's just -- since it's our last Christmas here, we wanted to do a patriotic theme. And it's an election year, so it's perfect to do a patriotic theme.”

Laura Bush called her last Christmas in the White House “bittersweet.”

In an interview with Charles Gibson aired earlier this week, president Bush said he’d “like to live life without the limelight for a while.”

Laura Bush added jokingly that she is thinking of becoming a cook again.

“I’ll miss living at the White House, of course, and all the people that are there that we’re with every single day,” she told Gibson. “It’s the people we’ll miss the most.”